Microsoft blasts PC makers: It's YOUR fault Windows 8 crash landed

By Crisp
in Back Page News

 Share

Recommended Posts

Grand Master

Crisp

Posted
Posted (edited)

Microsoft blasts PC makers: It's YOUR fault Windows 8 crash landed

Windows-8-Logo_myversion.jpg

Exclusive Microsoft blames PC makers for underwhelming Windows 8 sales over Christmas, The Register has learned. The software giant accused manufacturers of not building enough attractive Win 8-powered touchscreen tablets.

But the computer makers are fighting back: they claimed that if they?d followed Microsoft?s hardware requirements and ramped up production, they'd have ended up building a lot of high-end expensive slabs that consumers didn?t understand nor want.

The Reg has learned Microsoft provided clear and specific guidance on the hardware it wanted inside any machine running Windows 8 so as to show off and utilise the operating system's new capabilities, such as the touch-driven interface. Microsoft also gave its advice on the mix of high and low-end form-factors manufacturers should build, namely Ultrabooks, hybrids and simple laptops.

The Redmond giant had held a competition between competing computer makers, and the PCs it deemed the best were to be promoted under two labels: Hero PCs and Featured PCs. Microsoft wanted 10 Hero PCs to advertise globally and promised to pay retailers to display and promote 20 PCs on the Featured list.

However, the wheels came off that plan: Gartner said last week that during Q4 2012 Windows 8 didn?t make a ?significant impact? on PC shipments and other analysts said sales of Windows 8 are lagging Windows 7.

Now Microsoft is planning to reboot its launch of Windows 8 next month. On Tuesday the company gave 9 February as the date for the US and Canada unveiling of the Intel-powered Surface Pro tablets. But sources tell us Microsoft is actually preparing for a February ?relaunch? of Windows 8.

The Windows Pro Surface was planned to emerge in January, 90 days after Windows 8 and ARM-powered Windows RT Surface devices went on sale. That has clearly slipped.

Our well-placed source said that bad sales combined with PC makers ?ignoring? Microsoft's advice has left Redmond executives fuming.

?Microsoft is very frustrated with major OEMs who didn't build nearly enough touch systems and are now struggling to find parts and ramp up. Microsoft says they provided very specific guidance on what to build,? our insider said.

Source and more

Edited by Calum
Added a 'rumour' tag to remove the possibility of misguidance and the possibility of false accusations being made. What The Register's article says has not been confirmed at all by anyone.
Grand Master

The Evil Overlord

Posted
Posted

Riiiiight!

And had nothing to do with the fact that not everyone wanted or liked (NOTE: I said not everyone) it?

Or the fact that touch screens (over 22 inch) are still a little on the pricey side?

edit.. I just read my post... Crisp, that was not an attack directed towards you

Grand Master

Glassed Silver

Posted
Posted

Haha, wtf...

I'll take what they've had please.

Glassed Silver:ios

  • Dot Matrix, Arceles and Crisp
  • Like 3
Mentor

nekkidtruth

Posted
Posted

Not taking either side on this one however, it really drives me insane to see the front page of <insert any electronics store here>'s flyer with a ridiculous number of non-touch devices with Windows 8 on them. I don't believe any Windows 8 device should be touchless.

Grand Master

bandit_liberty_rumble

Posted
Posted
I don't believe any Windows 8 device should be touchless.

I'm assuming Microsoft would then have had trouble to sell any Windows 8 devices at all, going by what the article says:

Those who did buy Windows 8 PCs ultimately bought the cheap laptops not high-end Ultrabooks or hybrids.
Grand Master

Nick H. Supervisor

Posted
  • Supervisor
Posted

So wait, Microsoft was expecting that Windows 8 would only be a success if they could get the manufacturers on their side? Ok, that in itself can make sense, but if your whole plan relies on that then why not discuss the hardware guidelines with them so that an agreement can be reached? From the sounds of it such a discussion wasn't had and instead Microsoft thought the manufacturers would just roll with it.

  • MFH and The Evil Overlord
  • Like 2
Mentor

nekkidtruth

Posted
Posted

I'm assuming Microsoft would then have had trouble to sell any Windows 8 devices at all, going by what the article says:

Except that there are plenty of "cheap" devices that have touch. It's not impossible. Besides that, most of the high end devices don't even have touch. The entire thing is a mess as far as I'm concerned.

  • mrp04, Glassed Silver and The Evil Overlord
  • Like 3
Mentor

dvb2000

Posted
Posted

And the geniuses at Microsoft are jacking up the price in February too.

I wonder when they will kill it and release Windows 9 with start button & desktop and dump the failed metro experiment on desktops/laptops

Grand Master

The Evil Overlord

Posted
Posted

And the geniuses at Microsoft are jacking up the price in February too.

I wonder when they will kill it and release Windows 9 with start button & desktop and dump the failed metro experiment on desktops/laptops

To each, their own bud, I mentioned in another thread that there should have been 2 versions of 8. 1 for touch, 1 for old 'desktop' users

Grand Master

+Anarkii Subscriber²

Posted
  • Subscriber²
Posted

And the geniuses at Microsoft are jacking up the price in February too.

I wonder when they will kill it and release Windows 9 with start button & desktop and dump the failed metro experiment on desktops/laptops

I would rather them release Windows 8.5 - which dumps metro and has the desktop and is for desktop machines only.

Any windows device with touch can stick with Windows 8. That would be more... intelligent, something that Microsoft doesn't seem to have much of lately.

Grand Master

theyarecomingforyou

Posted
Posted
I would rather them release Windows 8.5 - which dumps metro and has the desktop and is for desktop machines only.

Any windows device with touch can stick with Windows 8. That would be more... intelligent, something that Microsoft doesn't seem to have much of lately.

I'd rather see them play to the strengths of the desktop form factor by allowing Metro apps to be run in a window and to behave similar to any conventional desktop application. The desktop should be the primary user experience for desktop users, with the Start Screen only appearing when the user launches it (? la Start Menu). The Control Panel and PC Settings interfaces should be merged or duplicated in their entirety, as having to switch between the two is simply bad UX design. The Start Screen should have more customisation options, like the ability to freely scale the size (fully independent of resolution, which is important in the high-DPI era) and more flexibility with tile placement (like allowing columns that are three-small tiles wide).

I'd rather see Windows move forward than for Microsoft to just run back to what worked with Windows 7. Oh, and Microsoft should open up the Metro platform so that it's not a walled-garden, as requiring all Metro apps to go through the Windows Store is overly restrictive - Microsoft seems to be trying to copy iOS, as Android doesn't do that. Most of the negative press from developers stemmed from the Windows Store and it didn't take a genius to see the hostility coming. Windows 8 had some very good ideas but the ham-fisted implementation and greed with the Windows Store significantly soured the experience.

  • Glassed Silver, The Dark Knight, bandit_liberty_rumble and 2 others
  • Like 5
Grand Master

Dot Matrix

Posted
Posted

I'd rather see them play to the strengths of the desktop form factor by allowing Metro apps to be run in a window and to behave similar to any conventional desktop application. The desktop should be the primary user experience for desktop users, with the Start Screen only appearing when the user launches it (? la Start Menu).

That's highly impractical. The desktop - the entire desktop - would have to be redesigned for use with touch.

Grand Master

The Evil Overlord

Posted
Posted

_Snip_

I'd rather see Windows move forward than for Microsoft to just run back to what worked with Windows 7.

~Snip~

I agree with you, although sometimes in order to move forward, you have to take a step back, (Not saying this is the right course here tho)

Grand Master

bandit_liberty_rumble

Posted
Posted

That's highly impractical. The desktop - the entire desktop - would have to be redesigned for use with touch.

Microsoft could let developers include additional (non-touchable) views in their applications that are hooked up to the existing application model to be utilized when the app is put into windowed mode for use on the Desktop.

Grand Master

theyarecomingforyou

Posted
Posted
That's highly impractical. The desktop - the entire desktop - would have to be redesigned for use with touch.

Either that or you could have two separate interfaces. That's up to Microsoft to decide, but the implementation in Windows 8 is a mess (even though I still prefer it as an operating system to Windows 7).

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Posts

    • Bypassed Windows 11 shows surprising stability on ancient, completely unsupported hardware

      By +samw61 · Posted

      Honestly that feels even more useless than it did when Win11 was first released. In 2021, the uproar was somewhat justified, but only when comparing how good we've had it since Windows 7. Prior to that, a new Windows release would often require new, or very recent hardware. Windows XP wouldn't run (in any usable way) on hardware released when it's predecessor Win98 was released (let's ignore ME). It was time to shift the goal post, and the way Microsoft did that was actually ok. People have still had another FIVE YEARS of free software support with Windows 10, and those of us who want to have used these tools to bypass the limitations, all while understanding the impacts that may have. Most laptops don't last 5 years (sadly), so now the youngest unsupported hardware is 9 years old, and apparently has another year of support with Windows 10. That's good. Meanwhile, understanding the impacts and limitations, I have my 2013 laptop running Win11 perfectly fine. The thing that's failing on it is the hardware, the 2.5" SATA cable/chip is failing and corrupting the SSDs I put in. Thankfully it has a functional M.2 sata drive that works fine!
    • iPhone 18 Pro drop-test video and photos leak on the dark web following a data breach

      By Hamid Ganji · Posted

      iPhone 18 Pro drop-test video and photos leak on the dark web following a data breach by Hamid Ganji iPhone 17 Pro - Image via Apple Apple is seemingly facing one of the biggest data breaches in its history, and just a few months before the official debut of the iPhone 18 Pro series, photos, a drop-test video, a supplier list, and key phone components have reportedly been leaked by hackers. Last week, we reported that Tata Electronics, an Apple supplier and iPhone producer in India, was hit by a data breach. As a result, it was reported that more than 200,000 trade secrets and confidential documents belonging to Apple and Tesla were stolen by the ransomware group World Leaks. According to Reuters, the group has now leaked supplier lists, component details, and photos of the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro models on the dark web. One of the materials leaked by the hackers is a drop-test video of the iPhone 18 Pro, which is due to launch this September. The phone is shown in a gray color and has the same familiar design we saw on last year's iPhone 17 Pro series. The device also appears to be quite durable, though it seems to be thicker than last year's model. One possible explanation is that Apple may be using a larger battery in the iPhone 18 Pro series. Moreover, Reuters says it has seen at least six documents mapping many components in the iPhone 18 Pro models to their respective suppliers, including details on chips on the main circuit board and on battery and camera components. The documents reportedly detail hundreds of parts that will be used in the iPhone 18 Pro models. A person familiar with the matter told the outlet that Apple classifies this data as sensitive and “is concerned about the documents being shared on the dark web as they relate to unreleased models.” Apple is reportedly investigating the issue but has yet to issue an official statement.
    • Microsoft Edge gets tons of security features, including AI model that can see your screen

      By monterxz · Posted

      You do you, I've just said that it first appeared in "home" version before it will be available in "work" one. I use Edge only because it still supports MV2 uBO extension even on Android - I'll switch when they stop.
    • Can't access the forum on mobile

      By Steven P. · Posted

      I imagine that was a review or something? My reviews mostly contain a lot of images and galleries, but these are all webp too, but yeah it all adds up on the page load. Would help if you were more helpful with your critique instead of bitching and moaning like a Karen 😂 Because then we might be able to fix it for you.
    • Dbrand thought they could get away with this Steam Machine case, Valve disagreed

      By PsYcHoKiLLa · Posted

      If Valve refused to let them make the case, I wonder if they've already partnered with someone else to do it? The fact that they didn't seek permission/licence before diving straight in is incredible though

  • Recent Achievements

    • First Post
      rosiecharles earned a badge
      First Post
    • Reacting Well
      Juan Dela earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • Week One Done
      Collagen Project earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Reacting Well
      Wakeen1966 earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • Rookie
      Almohandis went up a rank
      Rookie

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      516
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      273
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      142
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      100
    5. 5
      macoman
      54
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!